NYC Mesh: Volunteers Take on the Internet Industry

With the promise of inexpensive community internet, volunteers from this nonprofit are installing fixed-wireless technology across NYC's rooftops.

A major problem that faces America is broadband access, with millions of households lacking an internet connection. For example, a staggering one million New York City residents do not have broadband, with 46 percent of households below the poverty line lacking a home connection -- a massive display of the digital divide. The cause of these shortcomings lie in the fact that broadband providers have more incentive to compete on service and price in wealthier neighborhoods rather than poorer areas as a result of a larger and more lucrative market for internet. Thus, on some blocks of the Upper West Side, residents have up to four choices of carriers. In contrast, residents in neighborhoods like Brownsville, Brooklyn can only choose from Altice or Optimum, the latter being owned by the former, leading to these neighborhoods having no competition and thus little market pressure to bring prices down. The city first tried to solve this problem the providers themselves: Verizon was given the privilege of burying fiber-optic cable under city streets in exchange for installing high-speed Fios in every neighborhood. However, in many low-income areas, they have yet to do so, leading the city's chief technology officer John Paul Farmer to testify in April that "[t]he current oligopolistic system is broken, and it has built digital inequity into the streets and neighborhoods of New York."

There is, however, a solution to the problem at hand: community networks. These have been operating in other countries since the early 2000s, with the largest in the world being Guifi.net in Spain, which has 39,000 connections. Though that number is not very big, these networks have influenced many startups in the United States, including NYC Mesh and others like Community Tech NY, People's Choice, and Starry, all with the goal of providing alternatives to the current system.

One of these networks, NYC Mesh, serves 800 households concentrated in Lower Manhattan and central Brooklyn with the stated goals of building a neural network that doesn't block content or sell personal data, bridging the digital divide, and standing in opposition to the telecom oligopoly in New York. Though it is a tiny network in the context of the 3 million households that constitute the NYC broadband market, what sets them apart from the rest of the providers is the affordability and accessibility their Mesh network strives for. The fixed wireless systems NYC Mesh uses are quick and cheap to install, with a rooftop router costing $240 (or cheaper with the subsidized option) for an entire building and members only paying a suggested monthly donation of $20 to $60, along with a tip for the volunteers who install the technology. These prices are much more reasonable than the plans larger companies offer, making internet access within reach for many families in underserved neighborhoods.

Though small now, networks like these are beginning to receive the assistance of City Hall, bringing hope that community internet can become a real force in the broadband marketplace. NYC Mesh, as an example, has a contract with the city to place routers on the roofs of housing developments and recently got the green light to build a hub on a 24-story public housing tower in Bedford-Stuyvesant and two other developments in the Bronx and Queens. Along with four other small providers being selected to place routers on ten other New York City Housing Authority buildings and hotspots around the grounds, there is current government-supported progress towards a city connected by community networks. Further enabling these groups to flourish is the Mayor's Office's new Internet Master Plan, a reimagining of the city's broadband infrastructure. The plan offers free use of streetlight poles and the rooftops of public buildings to any provider, large or small, which should disproportionately benefit the grassroots organizations like NYC Mesh whose fixed wireless technology depends on rooftop access. With this new plan, NYC Mesh has applied to establish large hubs on 163 public buildings with the goal of covering much of the city with affordable internet in the next five to seven years. Since each installation comes with a free public hotspot, internet may soon become truly universal across New York.

Through community networks, the part of the digital divide impacted by unequal access to broadband can be bridged by providing this much-needed resource to millions across the United States who lack access in the status quo. However, to fully bridge the digital divide, internet connection must be paired with access to technology for users to reach resources on the web, and vice versa. Luckily, organizations like NYC Mesh, local and federal governments, and even larger corporations are all working to give help to those who need it. Please consider checking out both NYC Mesh's websitete (https://www.nycmesh.net) and this one (www.philanthropy4technology.com) to learn more about the digital divide and ways you can help bridge it.